Pilgrimage for the fallen

World War 1 battlefields? Ancient history, mate. Distinctly uncool. A pound or two in the collecting tin, a poppy in the buttonhole and that's enough remembrance for anyone.

Except that, for growing numbers, it isn't. As the Great War edges out of living memory, people are now pouring in to visit the sites - notably the Somme.

The battle plan in 1916 was to break through the German lines of communication established on the high ground; the result was Britain's greatest military disaster.

Day one saw 58,000 fall on the slopes of Thiepval and Beaumont-Hamel; 20,000 were dead.

With French support south of the River Somme, the battle dragged on for four-and-a-half months until it became bogged down in November mud.

Around 1.2 million men (from both sides) were killed, missing or wounded. Commonwealth troops gained about seven miles, the French five.

Nowadays, the demand to visit such sites is growing. Easier travel, the demands of the history curriculum which takes schoolchildren on visits, and better signposted circuits and museums have all contributed.

But a key reason is that as the final veterans fade away, younger people want to know the full story.

"This was every family's war," says a British military specialist, Vic Piuk. "Everyone had a granddad or great-uncle involved. They come to pick up the traces."

Today, the battlefields are rich and featureless farmland, heavy with wheat and root crops. Indeed, the main contemporary danger in the Somme is getting bumped off a country lane by a beetroot truck.

But the subtext of suffering is palpable. Skeletons and shells are still being turned up.

Here are some of the key Somme sites.

PERONNE Peronne was flattened during the Great War and put back together in haste. Feels a bit like Bolton. Now home to the excellent Historial war museum.

It covers every aspect of 1914-18 - from causes to aftermath - in video-fuelled manner.

POZIERES Taking Pozieres, a blip of a place, was 'hand-to-hand, houseto-house, cellar-to-cellar', according to a veteran - and it cost more Australian casualties than anywhere else in the war.

Memorials at either end of the village pay tribute to the 'Diggers'.

Sites permanently open. Cost: Free.

THIEPVAL This was a hilltop German stronghold and main British objective in July 1916. Tens of thousands died in the unsuccessful attempt to take it, which is why it's the site of the 150ft high British Somme memorial, designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens.

The names of 72,085 British soldiers with no known graves are inscribed on its 16 pillars. It's due to be complemented in 2004 by a £1 million visitor centre.

Site permanently open. Details: www.thiepval.org.uk

BEAUMONT-HAMEL The Somme offensive began at 7.30am on July 1, 1916. By 8.10am, of the 802 Newfoundlanders who went over the top, 734 had fallen.

Now their site is the most evocative and instructive of all. The trench networks remain visible and you may stride the battlefield with Canadian volunteers who explain how events unfolded.

It's humbling and as close as you can get to a proper understanding. A first-class information centre - paid for by the Canadian government - has just opened.

Site permanently open. Cost: Free. Tel: 00 33 322767086.

ALBERT An important British base blasted almost to extinction.

In 1915, the golden Virgin and child statue atop the town's basilica was dislodged by a German shell. For the next three years, it gently fell forward - the 'Leaning Virgin', the Tommies called it - before finally falling off in 1918.

Now it's magnificently back in place.

The underground 'Somme 1916' museum tells the tale of the trenches in vivid fashion.